Interaction with computing devices is a fundamental action in today's world. Computing devices, such as personal computers, tablets, smartphones, are found throughout daily life. In addition, computing devices that are wearable, such as wearable headset devices (e.g., virtual reality headsets and augmented reality headsets), are becoming more popular. The systems and methods for interacting with such devices define how they are used and what they are used for.
Advances in eye tracking technology have made it possible to interact with a computing device using a person's gaze information, such as the position on a display the user is gazing at. This information can be used for interaction solely, or in combination with a contact-based interaction technique (e.g., using a user input device, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch screen, or another input/output interface).
Previously proposed interaction techniques using gaze information can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,828, United States Patent Application Publication 20130169560, U.S. Pat. No. 7,113,170, United States Patent Application Publication 20140247232, and U.S. Pat. No. 9,619,020. The full specification of these patents and applications are herein incorporated by reference.
Generally, an eye tracking system is used to detect the person's gaze. The eye tracking system includes a set of cameras capturing images of eyes. The gaze information is derived from the images. The processing of the images levies a computational burden and consumes power. It is desirable to reduce the computational burden and power consumption.